Chocolate milk far outsells white milk in school cafeterias, and when
kids are denied the choice of the sugar-laden flavored variety, they buy
about 10 percent less milk -- and then throw away a lot more of the
white milk they do buy without drinking it.

Do-gooders who
want to prevent childhood obesity by keep sugary milk drinks out of school meals are
likely to end up with students drinking a lot less bone- and
teeth-building calcium and deriving other benefits from milk, the study
warns.

That helps explain why Eugene schools have since softened their stance on chocolate milk, despite the high sugar content.

"While removing chocolate milk from school cafeterias may appear to have
the immediate benefit of reducing calorie and sugar consumption, there
might be unexpected consequences," the study says. "After all, it’s not nutrition until it’s (consumed.)"

It
turns out that, when denied milk with sugary chocolate flavoring,
elementary students choose almost as much milk as they opted for before
-- just 10 percent fewer cartons of milk per days -- but they don't gulp
down as much of it.

Study co-author Brian Wansink, director of the food lab, suggests several ways schools
can get students to drink more plain, unsugared milk without banning
chocolate milk all together, including making sure that white milk makes
up at least one-third of milk on display and putting the white milk
containers first and in front in any display.

Eugene schools backed away from their chocolate milk ban in 2012-13, switching to selling white milk exclusively three days a week and offering a choice of chocolate or white twice a week, said Kevin Fiedler, nutrition director.

On chocolate choice days, "the vast majority -- 80 or 90 percent" of elementary students pick chocolate, he said. And on those days, "they tend to drink all their milk, so we don't have buckets full of discarded, leftover milk."

Having witnessed many "chocolate milk wars" over his decades in the business, Fiedler is mellow about chocolate milk and the breathless national coverage of the Cornell study of his district's former ban on it.

"My belief on chocolate milk is, the calcium is so good for the brain synapses
and the bones, and it's so hard to get kale in to them, that chocolate milk is a great
calcium delivery system."